Monday, June 19, 2017

From the Editor's DeskMost glowing opinion pieces on the acquisition of Whole Foods by Amazon (Forbes) don't hold water. There are much cheaper ways to get quick delivery (partnerships with stores, etc) than buying expensive Whole Foods locations. This is not a threat to Wal-mart as there is very little overlap between the customer bases of Whole Foods (high end) and Wal-mart (middle and lower income). However, grocery is a desirable retail category that Amazon has been trying to crack for a while. The market size is more than $600bn in the US alone (everyone needs food) and is fragmented (No grocer has more than 10% market-share other than Wal-mart, which itself controls only a fifth of grocery sales). Also, with its stock price at a low (with 2 years of declining sales), Whole Foods comes cheap (especially when bought with Amazon stock). At best, this is a relatively inexpensive "offline retail" experiment that will enable Amazon to scale its "technology in the physical environment" efforts, while gaining access to a running grocery business with great brand recall. Some downsides in this article titled 'The one glaring problem with the whole Amazon-Whole Foods deal'

Clock is ticking on India's bad bank debts under bankruptcy lawsIn a bid to crack down on defaulters, an independent advisory committee commissioned by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has decided to refer 12 companies, who have been identified as the top defaulters, to the insolvency and bankruptcy proceedings. These 12 companies account for over 25% of the gross non-performing assets that is present in the Indian banking system.

Corp NBFCs look to steer lending boomMumbai: India's top business conglomerates and billionaire industrialists are revving up a lending boom through non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) even as public sector banks hit a pause.

Bandhan Bank to open 160 branches moreBandhan Bank is targetting to open another 160 branches to reach the 1000-mark by the end of this financial year, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Bandhan bank Chandra Shekhar Ghosh said.

No Aadhaar, no banking and threat to privacy: Do you have a choice?The Centre has made it mandatory for all existing bank account holders to provide their Aadhaar numbers to their banks by December 31, 2017. If they fail, the account will no longer be operational, says a notification from the revenue department. Providing Aadhaar has also been made mandatory for anyone opening a bank account. The biometric identity numbers are issued by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). The notification issued amends the Prevention of Money- laundering (Maintenance of Records) Rules, 2005.

Hindustan TimesThe Russian oil major who took over Essar Oil recently is planning in a big way to make inroads into India's retail fuel market, Pradhan told reporters after attending the City Gas Distribution (CGD) project to supply piped natural gas (PNG) to ... articles »

OnePlus 5 crosses 300000 registrations on China's JD.comOnePlus 5 might be days away from launch, but registrations for the upcoming flagship has already cross 300,000 on Chinese retailer site JD.com. OnePlus will take the wraps of OnePlus 5 on June 20, and the smartphone will be launched in India on June 22.

CCI rejects another complaint against Reliance JioFor the second time in a week,For the second time in a week,the Competition Commission has dismissed allegations of unfair business practices made against Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio Infocomm. On June 9, it had dismissed similar allegations made by telecom major Bharti Airtel.